Can you avoid being scammed?

 Nowadays there are so many scams and it seems some are difficult to avoid. I have been a victim of an e-commerce con, which has gone on for about three years now. Clearly, I’m not the only one as Forbes magazine has outlined (see below). Unfortunately, it was not until I had parted with my money – twice- one for an upgrade, that I finally realised I had been scammed. Duhhh..

 After I had signed up for a website (and built it myself, after being trained by specialised trainers) somebody called me to teach me how to buy goods online, from China. It was a bucket shop, and I was expected to pay for the goods, even though I had been told this was included in the original deal. This so –called purchase had nothing to do with the website I had built.

 After this I blocked the telephone number, which came from Phoenix, Arizona. So I was surprised when I was tracked down nearly three years later because the very slick salesman used a free phone number in New Zealand. Stalking, or what?

 This salesman insisted that I pay for another upgrade (USD 1500 at a discounted rate) and get the associated training. I said that I hadn’t received the promised training before so why did I want to pay more? Anyway, I fobbed him off, did not pay any additional money and then blocked that number as well. No matter, that he had called me some 12 times, when I couldn’t take the call. A deadline for signing up to the scheme was encroaching, he said. The catch was that I had to give a review – presumably positive- about the company.

 As a consequence of falling for a scam I read “16 work-at-home scams to avoid” in Forbes. This is what I learned about the “e-commerce com. “

 “Making a few extra bucks doesn’t sound any easier than this. Simply pay an up-front, one-time fee (a few thousand dollars perhaps) to have someone build and host a functioning website featuring various household goods for sale, from toothpaste to toilet paper; each time someone buys an item, you collect a slice of the transaction. All you need to do is to encourage people to shop there- the rest (stocking inventory, shipping the product) is handled for you. Or more likely, nothing is handled, and the thief offering you the opportunity is long gone with your earnest money before you’ve hooked one tube of Crest.”

 To read “16 work-at-home scams to avoid go to:

https://www.forbes.com/pictures/ekij45eed/e-commerce-con/#6df63a8f6b22